


Shades of Bleach

by justjoy



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-04
Updated: 2011-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-24 12:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/940035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justjoy/pseuds/justjoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>What can a colour mean? The answer: many things.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Standalone oneshots exploring the shades of the Bleach universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. orange

The sun was just beginning to set when he heard the soft tread of footsteps behind him.

"Thinking again, Kisuke?"

He turned around from where he had been sitting on the steps, waving his paper fan in front of his face. "Ah, Yoruichi-san! So nice of you to visit me!"

"You never change, do you?" She shook her head in mock despair at his innocent expression. "Now tell me, what's bothering you?"

The shopkeeper laughed lightly. "Oh, it's nothing I would bother you with, dear Yoruichi-san! It's just the everyday worries of a mere simple-minded shopkeeper, nothing much at all…"

"Urahara Kisuke, simple-minded?" There was a loud, sardonic snort. "You really should know better than to try that one on me."

She crossed her arms, looking at him intently. " _What_   _is it?_ "

He took in her glare – it was the same one she'd given him that one time he had tried to hide her milk in Ururu's room. The one that said if he didn't give her what she wanted  _now_ , he was going to regret it for the remainder of his days.

It reminded him of the days when she'd been his superior.

Finally, he gave in, closing his fan and setting it down beside him.

"I was just wondering… what if I had done things differently all those years ago?" He sighed, turning away from her again. "If I hadn't sent Hiyori out, but gone myself instead – maybe I could have changed things –"

"Wait, wait, wait –" she interrupted him almost airily. " – _this_  was what you were so reluctant to tell me?"

The shopkeeper sighed again, feeling very old for a moment. "I told you it was nothing at all, Yoruichi-san, not anything important that you need to be concerned with…"

She chuckled, clearly amused. "That wasn't what I meant at all, Kisuke. I'm just saying that you're being stupid if you actually think that."

"But – " he spluttered "– if I had been there that night, I could have stopped him –"

"That doesn't mean you could have known what he was thinking," she said dryly.

He ignored her. "I could have guessed what he was trying to do – I had experimented with the idea of Hollowification before, and all the signs were there, I just didn't make the connection fast enough – "

"You don't get it, do you?" She clapped a hand over his mouth, meeting his surprised gaze steadily. "Listen to me, Kisuke. I'm not saying that you weren't good enough to stop him – in fact, you might have been the only one who could,  _if_  you had known about his plans."

"And don't you even go telling me that you  _should_  have known," she added before he could bat away her hand to answer. "No one could have guessed what he was planning to do, least of all you. Even Shinji had no idea, and we both know he isn't an idiot. So there was no way you could have known, and therefore you couldn't possibly have stopped him. That is a fact."

Her gaze hardened ever so slightly at his muffled protests.

"I'm not having any of your silly arguments, Kisuke. This whole mess is  _not_  your fault. Do you understand me?"

He seemed ready to protest again – then he suddenly deflated like one of his inflatable gigai, and nodded miserably.

She looked at him for one long moment before removing her hand. "That's better."

Then she rolled her eyes and laughed, breaking the solemn atmosphere. "You should have seen your face just now… you looked like a cat left out in the rain!"

"What can I say?" He shrugged almost nonchalantly, his usual cheerful demeanour slowly returning. "It's difficult to shake the feeling that I should have done  _something_."

"Couldn't, wouldn't, hadn't, all add up to the same thing. Didn't." She grinned cheekily at him before stealing his hat, twirling it on one finger. "Silly Kisuke. You aren't omniscient, you know, no matter how much you like to pretend that you are."

"Oh, Yoruichi-san, your words wound me so!" he declared overdramatically, pretending to keel over.

She laughed at his antics for a while before both lapsed into a companionable silence.

Then she spoke up. "Actually, Kisuke… do you know why I always wear this orange shirt?"

He slanted a glance at her, somewhat confused at the abrupt change of topic. "Eh – because you like orange?"

"Absolutely not," she said, still smiling as she shook her head. "I  _hate_  orange. Use those little grey cells of yours, Kisuke!"

He mulled over it for a moment before giving up. "I don't know. Why?"

Yoruichi whacked the shopkeeper over the head with his fan, rolling her eyes. "It's the colour of the Second Division, you idiot."

"Oh – right, I'd almost forgotten that…" he muttered while rubbing the sore spot on his head. Then he looked at her petulantly. "But that wasn't an excuse to hit me!"

She conveniently ignored his complaints. "The past is past, Kisuke. Just because we might have done something wrong doesn't mean that we must spend the rest of our days regretting it, okay?"

"Yes, yes, of course, Yoruichi-san. Just don't whack me again!" he begged pitifully, an obviously faked pout on his face.

"Why would I?" Her smile widened at his expression of abject horror. "It's fun!"

He was already up and running before she even finished her sentence. "TESSAI! URURU! JINTA! HELP ME!"

"They're not around!" she exclaimed gleefully as she sprang up, expertly wielding the fan like a weapon. "I sent them out on an errand!"

There was a cry of dismay from the unfortunate quarry – and so it was that the epic chase began, two figures silhouetted against the orange light of the setting sun.


	2. red

Red.

That was what people thought when they saw her Ken-chan.

It was the same thing that  _she_  thought about her Ken-chan too.

But it wasn't the same – when others said _red_ , they meant the colour of blood. She'd heard it many, many times before, even when she was only half-listening; they said he was _violent_  and _wild_  and _rough_  and lots of other things that she hadn't quite understood, because the words were all so long and official. They all seemed to mean the same thing though; she could tell from the way they said it, and the looks on their faces.

She had even heard the scowling girl with the white braids (the one who always petted a black cat when she thought no one else was looking) call him a _monster_  once.

It was fine, though; she knew that none of them had meant what they said, because her Ken-chan was a nice person – in fact, he was the best person she knew. Besides, monsters were the funny things that hid in dark corners and liked to jump out suddenly and try to scare you.

Of course, she was never scared, because her Ken-chan was always around when the  _real_  monsters appeared. She didn't honestly think that any of those white-faced things were stronger than him, even though she knew that he always found it fun to fight them.

And then some people – like Baldy, Icchi, or even Maki-Maki – meant to say that her Ken-chan had courage, and was willing to make sacrifices in the face of danger.

She thought she knew what they meant; well, at the very least, she knew what having courage was (it meant that her Ken-chan was brave, which he definitely was) but she didn't quite understand the second part. Of course, she had asked Baldy about it, but he had just scratched his head and mumbled something about fighting. Which sounded about correct, considering that it  _was_  Ken-chan that they were talking about, but she would have liked it if he had been able to explain it better.

But that was why Baldy was called Baldy, not Brainy or anything like that.

Maybe she should ask Byakushi about it one day… wait, she was 'digressing from the topic', as he always called it – Bya-kun, of course, not Ken-chan.

Some people were smart, like Bya-kun. It made doing stuff to them all the more fun, like the last time she had gone to take Bya-kun's pretty little fishes.

Then there were those who didn't seem to have much of a brain, but had more than enough heart to make up for it. Icchi was one of those people. She didn't think he was very smart – smart people didn't come looking for fights, did they?

Everyone knew he had a big heart, though, and that was why people like Shiny Glasses (who definitely _didn't_ look stupid at all) followed him. She thought it was also why Ken-chan found fighting Icchi so fun, other than the fact that he was the only one who was powerful enough to  _fight_  him at all.

Her Ken-chan was much better, though. He had all that, and a large shoulder too.

And that wasn't a 'digression', because that was one of the many things that she liked about him. It was one of the important things that made Ken-chan  _her_  Ken-chan, and not just some idiot like Maki-Maki or Baldy.

That didn't mean she didn't like Maki-Maki and Baldy – they were actually quite nice people, really. Somehow, though, they couldn't stand being with her for too long; it made them do weird things. She sometimes thought Baldy would have tried to pull his hair out if he wasn't already… well, bald.

But everyone else – Maki-Maki, Baldy or even Icchi – was  _different_.

Yes, she knew they were probably  _courageous_  and _willing to make sacrifices_. Unlike lots of other people, they weren't 'a bunch of cowards' as Ken-chan would have called them. Most of them had a big heart too, even if it was for someone else, not her.

She supposed that made them 'red' too, in other people's eyes.

Her Ken-chan was a special shade of red, though.

It was the same red that she dreamt of every night as she drifted off to sleep, Ken-chan snoring loudly beside her. The same red that she'd touched on his sword the first time they had met.

The same red she knew that she would see if someone even  _tried_  to harm her in front of Ken-chan.

And even if the sky fell down, she knew that he would always be there, a great big shoulder for her to hop on.

He  _was_  her Ken-chan, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a side note, red is the traditional colour for a heroic figure in Japanese culture.


End file.
